Is an Airstream Motorhome the right choice for us? We’d love to cruise around the world in a good-looking vehicle but the issue for us is service availability and vehicle reliability. And ground clearance, and departure angle. Unfortunately, the Airstream does not score well on any of these.

So while we may not go with one of their motorhomes, we really like some of the floorplans and designs of their caravans (travel trailers, as they are known in the US).

First though, why not a caravan? It’s funny you should ask, because equally, why not a fifth wheel?

It was only when looking at the Airstream site that we really began to take notice of caravan design. Until then, we’d not considered them for the simple reason that they need towing. And in our early investigations, we’d discounted all towable RVs because that means another vehicle, which makes shipping more expensive – or so we thought…

The same argument seemed to apply to 5th wheelers. But as we investigated the smaller fifth wheels, we started to change our mind there, too…

So we started looking at the Airstream site in detail and, lo and behold, we noticed something very interesting. A caravan is essentially a bus with the driver compartment and engine removed which means that the efficiency of caravan design could be very useful when we consider fitting out a bus. Because we’d also seriously considered settling on converting a bus. Fifth wheels, caravans, buses. The three together are heavily influencing our decisions even if we eventually decide on a single vehicle solution.

What do we like about these caravans?

We love the clean design and efficient use of space. We like the fact that a 20-23 foot caravan has about the same amount of living space needed for a bus with an overall length of 7.5 – 9 metres (24-29 feet) and we really like the floorplan of the International S 23FB (for front bed). If we combine that efficiency of space with the efficiency of weight and tow-length of a fifth wheel, we start to get a very interesting combination.

Of course we can be inspired by the fit-outs of 45 foot long Class A motorhomes such as Tiffin or Newmar but realistically we need to be considering something about two-thirds that length so the Airstream and GMC motorhome floorplans have a lot to offer. Especially when we consider the criteria we have selected for our motorhome chassis.

That said, if you’re looking for classic Airstream motor homes, where do you find an Airstream Motorhome for sale?

The usual places:

RV Trader

eBay

Conclusion on an Airstream Motorhome

Airstream have pedigree we like and a design we adore. The problem for us is that the caravans are limited to the North American and Australian markets and don’t appear to be suitable for off-road travel. That said, the floorplan for the 762 International Series gives us a lot to think about http://airstreamaustralia.com.au/762-airstream.html…

As far as an Airstream Motor Home is concerned, we love their look and will be inspired by them in our research and design.